Kelewele: My favorite Ghanaian Snack

I'm in the midst of packing to spend a year in Brazil and Ghana but just caught sight of a bag of Nina International's "All Natural UDA Hwentia," sitting on my desk. It made me wish for some fresh kelewele, one of my all-time favorite snack foods from Ghana. Western cookbooks generally describe kelewele as something like "spicy fried plantain cubes," but that is like calling a sunset "beautiful." All the recipes I've seen in Western cookbooks are anemic versions of the best kelewele as it's prepared in Ghana. First of all, Western versions only call for salt, ginger, and dried red pepper, but in Ghana in addition to grinding fresh ginger and onion, they also commonly pound and add sekoni (aniseed), hwentia (a kind of long black stick I've yet to name botanically. Can anyone help me out?), and cloves. The plantain should be very ripe and sweet, and nicely coated with the mixture before it is deep-fried. The plantain is generally cut on a diagonal rather than into a straight cube. Kelewele tastes superb accompanied with dry roasted peanuts. The sweet, spicy, and chewy plantain is a perfect counter to the mild crunchy/creamy flavor and texture of the peanuts. Both go well with an ice cold beer or drink like ginger beer or bissap. Nina International distributes many West African foods through its office in Maryland (PO Box 6566, Hyatsville, MD 20789). More information on suppliers is available at African Food Stores
Rest assured, Barbara Baeta and I will include an authentic recipe for gourmet kelewele in our upcoming book.

Koranteng's Toli

Koranteng's eclectic blog is always a stimulating read for anyone interested in things African and beyond--from technology to music to books to politics, and, yes, to food. He recently (Sunday, April 29) posted a mouth-watering, heart- and belly-warming review of a Cameroonian restaurant in Berkeley, A Taste of Africa. His posting reminded me of the wide regional variation among West African recipes with the same generic name, like "jollof rice." For a fascinating discussion about jollof rice, see the Congo Cookbook. I learned to make it in Ghana by first seasoning, then frying the chicken (or beef), and then the onion, tomatoes, and peppers. Over the years I learned to add fresh garlic, ginger, and curry powder, along with fresh or dried shrimp, and other vegetables, like peas and carrots or bell peppers. The final steps included adding tomato paste, and then the salt and rice and cooking it all together in a pot. I've since discovered my jollof is less mushy when I use fresh seeded tomatoes (rather than canned) and finish it up in the oven.

I've always called this classic West African dish reminiscent of Spanish rice a "one-pot," but apparently in Sierra Leone it also has a "two-pot" version where some of the sauce is prepared and served separately from the orange-red rice. Some say the dish originated from the Wolof people of Senegal, some of Gambia. Some say it should be bright red, others call for a toned-down orange. These days everybody seems wild to throw in a few seasoning cubes, but I continue to resist that trend.

Makola Markets (and more) in Chicago

I recently returned from Chicago, where Gloria Mensah and I presented, as promised, an enthusiastically received talk and tasting session (gari foto and chicken groundnut stew with rice, shown below) at the IACP (Intl. Assoc. of Culinary Professionals) meetings. Chicago's large Ghanaian community sponsors an annual cultural festival every year that is said to be the largest of its kind in North America. One of the surprise hits of our talk was our display and passing comments on the spice known as melegueta peppers (Grains of Paradise), which apparently is becoming trendy these days, though Moroccan cooks may know of the seeds as an ingredient in some ras el hanout combinations. (I'll write more about them later.) For now, here are a few photos: the 2 Makola Markets we visited (a few blocks apart) to pick up some true Ghanaian yam, some cassava, cocoyam, sweet potatoes, zomi oil, dried shrimp and various African seasonings (added to some I brought from Ghana, like dried orka and agushi and dawadawa seeds, and a variety of Maggi cubes (shito, dawadawa, shrimp). The proprieter of Chicago's Makola African Markets, which appear to cater especially to Ghanaians and Nigerians, is Nana Adu-Gyamfi, pictured on the right.

Gloria and fellow IACP attender Gisele Perez enjoying fish Friday night at Yassa, where the food was great, but we suffered from not having a car and ended up paying more for our transportation than dinner. Plus, the crowd there overwhelmed their staff and though service was pleasant it was quite slow. (To be picky, I was disappointed they were out of baobab juice.)

On Saturday Gloria and I went to observe the chefs prepare our recipes for our tasting at the conference hotel. I realized once again that chefs unfamiliar with African ingredients, be it gari or tinned corned beef or palm oil, need firm guidance when confronted with something for which they have no context. They had purchased pink pickled ginger (just in case that's what we meant), minced regular corned beef rather than canned, and gotten regular peanut butter rather than natural style we requested. The simple tastings (garifoto on the left; groundnut stew on the right) are pictured below.

Ghana in Chicago

I'm off to Chicago in two days for the International Association of Culinary Professionals' (IACP) annual conference. Gloria Mensah and I will be doing a presentation on Ghana's food and foodways, featuring tastings of gari foto and groundnut stew. Our session is called "The Good Soup Comes from the Good Earth: Cooking of Ghana, Gateway to West Africa." Gloria will join us fresh from the Ghana Jubilee celebration held in Calgary, Canada, where she helped oversee a culinary (and cultural) feast enjoyed by some 600 folks.

There're still a lot of loose ends to tie up, so it'll be a few days before I'm able to blog again. While in Chicago, some of us plan to dine at Madieye and Awa Gueye's newly enlarged Yassa African Restaurant restaurant, and I hope to pick up supplies for our presentation at Chicago's Makola Market. I'll be sure to report on the trip, and will have my trusty digital camera in hand.

Recent sources of information about African cuisine

(these links are current as of 4 April 2007):


On the growing interest in African cuisine: "African food is conquering America! More and more of my friends and colleagues are starting to get interested in African cuisine. . ." http://foodcookingrecipes.com/african-food-is-full-of-flavor.html

An article in Cooking Light called "West African Hospitality" and featuring francophone cuisine (recipes from Benin, Senegal, and Cote D'Ivoire) by the well-known culinarian Jessica Harris:
http://www.cookinglight.com/cooking/cs/worldcuisine/package/0,14343,443650,00.html

(Word Press') Sociolingo's Africa has an archive of postings on African cuisine:
http://sociolingo.wordpress.com/tag/culture/african-cuisine/

Ghana-style Kenkey

Italy has polenta, Ghana has kenkey. This steamed fermented corn dough dish from Ghana has several versions. The two most well-known include Ga and Fanti styles, the former dough including salt and made of balls wrapped in corn husks before steaming, the latter without salt and wrapped in plantain leaves. It is also called komi in Ga, dokono in Twi, or dokon in Fante, kokui or tim in Ewe (sorry, I'm missing the correct orthography to insert special Akan characters in several of these words).

There are numerous other versions of kenkey, including a type where the skins of the corn are removed before grinding it. A sweet version is called dokompa, and it is one of the few instances where sugar is added to a main carbohydrate (sweet potatoes or yam are also added). Kenkey can also be made from plantains, where very ripe plantains are pounded and mixed with green plantain meal (amada kokonte). Plantain kenkey is known as brodokono in Twi, afanku in Ga, and ahyenku or asenku in Fante.

The preparation of corn-based kenkey involves souring the dough, then cooking half of it slightly to make aflatta, (a.k.a. ohu, or half-cooked banku), then mixing the partly cooked dough with the uncooked dough and wrapping and steaming the mixture. Banku is a smooth, softer dough that is cooked and stirred, rather than steamed.

Kenkey fascinates me, and I hope to continue tracing its history when I'm in Brazil later this year. Apparently some of the peoples in Amazonia, such as the Tupi-Guarani, also ferment corn to make dough. Many parts of sub-Saharan Africa have thick corn-based porridges (pap, bidia, ushima, sadza, ugali, etc.), but Ghana's fermented dough seems different. It is also difficult to duplicate in North America, where we are usually forced to ferment Indian Head or other (white) cornmeal. This disappoints on several counts: the corn should be soaked before being ground and fermented (something to do with how the starch changes to sugar, a food scientist in Ghana once tried to explain to me), it should be white (harder to find in the U.S.), and it should be finer than our stone ground cornmeal. I've also tried soaking dried Indian corn, and grinding it myself, but have not identified the correct types (flint, dent?) and been unsuccessful. Ga-style kenkey is wonderful with crisply fried fish, a spicy pepper sauce/sambal such as Ghana's "sheeto," and a fresh tomato, pepper, and onion "gravy."

Nigerian Moin-Moin

Here are 3 brief videos to help you make perfect moin-moin. The first is a 2-minute introduction, followed by a 10-minute summary of the ingredients and process (including information on preparing the foil packets in which the moin-moin is steamed), and finally a 9-minute demonstration of dehulling the beans and making the batter.

Tea Bread Update and Sugar Bread Draft

As they say in Ghana, "Little by little, the chicken drinks water." The tea bread recipe is getting better and better. I've added some gluten flour, trimmed down the amount of yeast, and substituted ground mace for the nutmeg. I'm also using my electric bread maker to mix the dough (otherwise, just knead it).

Into the bread maker (or bowl), add (liquids first):
about 1 (8 oz.) cup warm water, and
2 oz margarine
Next, 1 lb. 1 oz. bread flour (I used Pillsbury this time), and
4 teaspoons gluten,
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon ground mace
3/4 teaspoon dry powdered yeast

I set the timer on the "dough" setting, and wait for it to finish, then remove the dough, and put it in a greased bowl to sit for about 8 hours, then punch it down, shape it into a loaf or loaves with slightly tapered edges (I no longer use the bread pans), place it (them) on a lightly greased/oiled cookie sheet and let the dough rest for about half an hour (I always let my dough rise lightly covered with a dishtowel and rest in a slightly warmed oven with a bowl of water. Bake in a preheated oven at 375 degrees for about 45 minutes.

The picture above is actually from one of my earlier efforts and not the best illustration, but the better loaf got eaten before I could photograph it.

I"ve had another request for a sugar bread recipe (see the picture from the blog posting for March 5 to see various ways of shaping the bread besides in a bread pan). I don't believe in hoarding recipes, so even though I've not tested or developed this yet, here are my rough notes from my trip to Ghana (I'll probably halve this recipe as I work on it):

Sugar Bread, loaves and Rosca (working draft)

2 eggs
about 1/4 c full-cream powdered milk, or a single-serving sized packed (like Nido)
2 c sugar
7 c presifted flour (~2 1/2 lb)
2 t salt
4 heaping t ground nutmeg
3 level t yeast
12 oz margarine

1. Break 2 eggs into a large mixing bowl.
2. In a measuring cup add a single-serving-sized packet of full-cream powdered milk (a little less than 1/4 c) with enough water to make 1 c. Add the milk to the eggs along with 2 t salt and mix until foamy.
3. Add 2 c sugar and mix again.
4. In another bowl, measure out the flour and add 4 heaping teaspoons of ground nutmeg and 3 level t yeast. Stir together.
5. Mix together the dry and wet ingredients (she added the flour to the other bowl gradually (?), using her hand to knead it as she added it.
6. Work in 12 oz of margarine to the dough. Push in the middle and turn and turn.
7. Dust a clean work surface with flour and continue kneading the dough until it is smooth, satiny, and elastic.
8. Leave the dough to sit for about 30 minutes (but this was a warm, humid environment—in the U.S. you might need to put it in a slightly warm oven with a bowl of hot water in the oven). Punch it down (Q: and knead again?? I think we formed the loaves, etc. at this point.
9. Here we stopped to make “Rosca” (?) (Rose string?): She took a portion of the dough, divided it into 3 equal pieces, and rolled each piece out to about 17”, then pinched the 3 strands together at one end and braided them, (some of them she left in a long braid, others she shaped into a small ring), and also made a couple of different sized “mother and baby” rosca. To do that, first took a small ball of dough (size??) and rolled it into a cylinder (length? about 4 or 5 inches?) and how wide? (about an inch?). At one end, she pinched the dough on each side to form the neck, then made small slits at a 45º angle about halfway (or a little less?) down from the neck on each side to pull away from the rest of the dough to make the arms, then a slit up the other end of the dough (not the end with the head) to make the legs (they formed the legs by gently spreading the dough out a little where the cut was made. )

After shaping the dough, put it in greased/oiled pans and leave to rise until (??)

This dough can be formed into various shapes, including baking in a greased loaf pan, making into round loaves, or the braids (hers was about 17” long), etc.

Our yeast was bad, so we still need to check the rising and baking time (and temperature).

If any of you Ghana sugar bread fans try this recipe, please e-mail me to know of your results.

Step-by-step moin-moin (or moyin-moyin), a savory steamed bean (cow-pea) pudding from Nigeria.

Coming Soon: Black-eyed peas are frequently prepared as savory steamed puddings throughout Western and Central Africa. Last October I introduced and interviewed "Auntie Bola" Sodeinde in a podcast (see blog posting for October 21, 2006). She returned to Pennsylvania in March and kindly offered to demonstrate the preparation of moin-moin, similar to Ghana's tubane. We spent a couple of delightful hours cooking together at her son and daughter-in-law's home. I recorded the session with my digital camera and will soon be posting her very helpful Nigerian cooking lesson as a video. To whet your appetite, go ahead and gather the ingredients you'll need to make the moin-moin: a pound of dried black-eyed peas, a medium onion, a red sweet bell pepper, peanut oil, salt (OR seasoning salt), white pepper, chicken, or vegetable or other stock OR granulated bouillon and water. If you want to make our fancy version you can include hard-boiled eggs, a little tomato paste, tinned corned beef, and dried crayfish.

You'll also need some aluminum foil in which to steam the pudding (unless, of course, you have banana leaves available), a large pot with a steamer insert, and a food processor (a blender can be used, but it's harder). Check back in a couple of days for the video.

Ghana's Tea Bread Secrets

I've probably had more interest expressed in finding a recipe for Ghana's tea bread than any other recipe.

In 2002 in Ghana I asked the owner of PamFran Co., a bakery in Accra, to teach me to make Ghana-style sugar bread and tea bread. She came to Flair Catering where I was staying, and demonstrated quantities and techniques. After returning to Pennsylvania, my first attempt to recreate her tea bread failed miserably: mine was hard as a rock. I returned to Ghana 2 years later, and went back to Mrs. Spendlove, Pamela Ayele Attipoe, to be shown again. This time I went to her bakery, and realized her commercial mixers and rollers also affect the texture of her bread. I'm still trying to perfect my recipe. I thought I'd share where I am so far.

One difference between Ghana and Pennsylvania tea bread is the gluten content in the flour: Ghana's has more gluten. In Accra we mixed flour from Takoradi and Irani mills to average the hardness (Ghana does not grow its own wheat, but imports it and mills it locally. I've read that around 90% comes from the U.S. I think, but am not sure, that it imports mostly hard red winter wheat). This time I used bread flour, which may still not be as hard.

Anyhow, I've combined the 2 lessons in Accra with another, older recipe from the 1953 edition of Gold Coast Nutrition and Cookery. The 1953 recipe uses palm wine, but I substituted yeast and a little extra water. However, I noticed that Marian Shardow has a recipe for palm wine bread in her A Taste of Hospitality and says you can substitute white wine for palm wine. I'll try that next. I'm still having some trouble getting the sugar and salt in the right proportions, and my dough is rising faster than the 8 hours it takes in Ghana, but I'll keep working on it. In the meantime, any of you who'd like to take a crack at it and let me know your versions/results, here's where I've gotten to so far with my recipe development (I'm using U.S. measurements):

2 lb. 3 oz. of bread flour (about 7 1/2 cups)
2 oz. of sugar (this needs increasing some, I think)
1.5 t yeast (or 1 rounded teaspoon; I may try 1 t next time)
2 t ground nutmeg (reduce to 1 1/2 t?)
2 t salt (down from 1 T)
4 oz margarine
about 2 cups warm water

I weighed, then sifted the flour, added the sugar, yeast, nutmeg and salt, and mixed in the water gradually, first with a spoon, then my hands. Finally, I continued mixing in the margarine (not butter) with my hands.

I kneaded the dough on a floured surface for about 10 minutes until it was elastic and smooth (it's a stiffer dough than a normal white or whole wheat dough), and turned it into a greased bowl, covered it with a dishtowel and set it in a warm oven to rest and ferment for about half an hour. Then I punched the dough down, divided it in half and stretched each half out and formed each into one-pound loaves to put inside lightly greased aluminum bread pans I brought from Ghana and let them rise (proof) inside my warm oven with a bowl of water below them to keep them from drying out (I also covered them with the dish towel). Instead of the 8 hours I was hoping for, after 4 hours they were at the top of the pans and needed to be baked. I put them in a hot oven (425 degrees F) for about 15 minutes, then turned the heat down to 375 for another 30 minutes. Next time I'll just cook them at 375 degrees for the full 45 minutes or so (my crust browned too quickly).

Today I halved the recipe and just added everything into my bread machine on the dough setting and mixed it, then turned it into a lightly greased bowl to let it rise. It's still rising. I'll wait 7 or 8 hours before I punch it down and make the loaf, then let it rise for about 30 minutes and bake it at 375 degrees F for about 45 minutes.

Family taste test: For the first version listed above my husband said there was an elusive flavoring he seemed to think his mother's tea bread used to have (someone suggested it might be mace?). Teenager Sam said he thought mine had too much nutmeg and the texture was different, plus the crust was too tough. Sam and I thought there was too much salt, but my husband disagreed. I'll let you know how the recipe testing process goes as we keep working on this. Please do share your insights.

African Gastronomy Coming to the table at TEDGLOBAL

TEDGLOBAL "Africa: The Next Chapter"

The insightful and far-seeing organizers and supporters of the upcoming TEDGLOBAL conference in Arusha, Tanzania recognize that Africa's culinary star is rising. "TED" stands for technology, entertainment, and design, and TED's annual conference in California is legendary as "an annual event where leading thinkers and doers gather for inspiration. " This June they're holding their first conference in Africa. Tami Hultman, now of allafrica.com, who in 1985 edited the fabulous Africa News Cookbook, nicely summarizes what the conference is all about.

Emeka Okafor, a UK-raised, New York-based entrepreneur of Nigerian origins, has been hired as the conference organizer. Well-known, among other things, for his fabulous, eclectic blog timbuktuchronicles, he realizes the importance of African entrepreneurs involved in the African-food industry.

100 of the invitees to the (pricey) conference are described as ". . . people actively involved in creating Africa’s future who could not afford to attend on their own. Four companies – AMD, GE, Google and Sun Microsystems – are providing fellowships to cover expenses, and admission fees will be waived." I am honored to have been selected to receive one of those fellowships, and hope to represent African culinary and other food industry professionals. I have some ideas to carry along with me (from a digital archive of African cookbooks to culinary teaching dvds to a television show), but please let me know your suggestions, observations, etc.

More African Cooking Lessons on DVD

An enterprising couple, Antony Kovilparambil and Marina Antony, have developed a set of budget-priced ethnic cooking DVDs. One is called West African Cooking (Liberian Style), demonstrated by 2 sisters from Monrovia, Vashti Taylor and Darling Taylor-Bello. The set contains 10 basic recipes (for Jaloff Rice, Potato Greens or Spinach, Liberian Gravy, Pepper Soup, Check Rice, Fried Okra, Palm Butter, Cassava Leaves, Palava Sauce and Tabughee, with a "bonus" recipe for Paw Paw pudding).

I salute Mr. Kovilparambil and Ms. Antony for their pioneering efforts that enabled me (and others outside Liberia) to learn more about Liberian versions of several familiar West African dishes, and also to see Check Rice and Tabughee prepared. I noted a general absence of the tomatoes and ginger common in much Ghanaian cooking, and a more frequent use of celery. Still, I was somewhat disappointed in the repetitiveness of the recipes, the heavy hand with seasoning cubes (increasingly common throughout West Africa), the limited use of fresh ingredients, and the complicated cooking procedures. I was left with a couple of questions: in Liberia do people really combine shrimp, beef and chicken, and sometimes fish in almost every dish? Why would they cook each of those ingredients in separate pots before combining them?

The demonstrated recipes are included as a Word file on the DVD to print out (the install program seemed way too complicated, so I just printed out the files on my Mac and also a PC directly from the DVD after exiting the menu and had no problem.) A slightly more expensive version includes printed recipes. More information is available at http://www.cookingondvd.com/cooking/liberian.html
Also, they have another DVD from East Africa coming out soon, that will focus on Ethiopian cooking.

Touch of Africa 2007

Penn State recently held its annual African food and culture event sponsored by the African Students Association. This always-sold-out event attracts 400-600 students, faculty, and community people who come to be touched by the vibrancy and creativity of Africa: to taste the food, hear the music, listen to the speakers, watch the fashion shows and dancers and drummers and acrobats. . .you get the idea.
Producing the meal is a feat in itself. As usual, preparation takes place behind the scenes, mostly by the women students, using Penn State's conference center kitchen. Special ingredients from cases of red palm oil and agushi to ripe plantain are ordered well in advance, and for two days volunteers are in the kitchen chopping, dicing, marinating and cooking. I visited the kitchen the day before the actual event. While most of my pictures are in albums on the betumi flickr account, along with descriptions, here is a sampling. This year's event was heavily influenced by the West African students from Nigeria, Cameroon, Togo and Liberia.

Making Ghana-style Microwave Fufu, Parts 1 and 2

Here's our first "how to" video demonstrating step-by-step how to make microwave fufu using readily available ingredients. Part 1 (about 5 minutes) is the introduction


and Part 2 (almost 11 minutes) is the actual demonstration



Here's the recipe:

Microwave Fufu Recipe (Ghana-style)
Using Instant Mashed Potatoes and Potato Starch Flour

1 U. S. cup (16 tablespoons, or 250 ml) instant mashed potatoes
½ U. S. cup (8 tablespoons, or 125 ml) potato starch flour
2 U. S. cups (32 tablespoons, or 500 ml) water

• Put the instant mashed potatoes and potato starch flour in a 1-quart or 1-liter microwave safe container (Naana and I both use round ones, which are easier to stir). Add 1 ¾ cup to 2 cups (about 440 to 500 ml) of the water, and stir well for about a minute with a sturdy spoon (wooden stirring stick or wooden spoon, if available).
• Place the bowl, uncovered, in the microwave for 3 minutes on high.
• Remove the bowl, and stir well, pressing against the side of the bowl to remove any lumps
• If necessary, and you did not use all of the water, add the rest, simply pouring it on top of the fufu, but not stirring it, and return the fufu to the microwave for another 3 minutes.
• Remove the fufu, pour off any standing water, and stir it again, pressing hard against the side of the bowl, until all the remaining water is mixed in and the fufu is smooth.
• Put a small bowl of water near the fufu, and wet another bowl. Place a handful of the fufu into the wet bowl, wet your hands, and turn the fufu ball until it is a smooth, almost oval shape, occasionally using the water in the other bowl to wet your hands and keep the fufu from sticking to it, and until the surface of the fufu is smooth.
• The individual balls of fufu may be served on a platter dampened with water to keep the fufu from sticking (we always put a bowl of water near our fufu to allow us to wet the serving spoon if it is being served into a bowl, or to allow diners to wet their hands before serving themselves.
• Enjoy with a nice Ghanaian soup (palmnut, groundnut, or light soup)!
• To serve: place the fufu into a bowl, and spoon the soup over and around it. Eat with a spoon or your hands.


Incidentally, exploring YouTube, I found 4 little clips of fufu being pounded in Ghana, and one of (definitely nonGhanaians) eating fufu, and 3 clips of someone making fufu on the stovetop:
eating fufu
pounding fufu 1
pounding fufu 2
pounding fufu 3
pounding fufu 4
making fufu on the stovetop, part 1
making fufu on the stovetop, part 2
making fufu on the stovetop, part 3

African Culinary Videos











I'm exploring African cooking/culinary videos on the Web. There's been quite a bit of positive buzz about Anthony Bourdain's recent show on No Reservations where he traveled to Ghana in West Africa to explore the food and culture there. It aired on the travel channel. While I've not yet seen the whole show, there's a nice brief clip from it on their website. Note the Star beer, the chichinga, the habanero peppers, the grilled tilapia, the banku . . . Yum. I can't wait until I visit again. He also has two clips shot in the southern African nation of Namibia. One of them is about eating oysters at a water-side restaurant, and the other is actually more about West/Central African cooking by a chef from Cameroon who has a restaurant in Namibia. Also, BlackTVOnline has a couple of 11-minute clips on YouTube by Ngozika, a Nigerian, demonstrating the preparation of a meat/spinach soup and pounded yam (a.k.a. fufu) and the other preparing a corn porridge (pap, or akamu) and akara, a type of black-eyed pea fritter. It shows some cooking techniques, tools, and ingredients, but really needs to be supplemented by actual recipes (and some more explanation) for anyone new to West African cooking. Nigerian pounded yam is quite different from Ghanaian fufu. "Pepper" usually means the red chili peppers, not black peppercorns. I know many African countries have popular tv cooking shows (such as Asanka Delight in Ghana, and another one sponsored by Maggi in Nigeria, and Choumicha's popular show in Morocco). I believe Ghanaian-born Dorinda Hafner did a series of African cooking shows in Australia (are they available anywhere?), and apparently Jeff Smith did a show called Dishes of Africa in 1992. I'd like to learn about more video/dvd resources if you know of any.

Advice on opening and operating an African restaurant from Berkeley, California


I just returned from my first African Studies Association conference, held in San Francisco in November, 2006, and my talk about "Asanka to Maggi Cubes: Ghanaian Cookbooks as Sources for African Food History" (the only talk on African cuisine, which is why I went!) I also had a chance to eat at 2 West African restaurants in the San Francisco Bay area: Senegalese Marco's Bissap Baobab in San Francisco, and Ghanaian Mary Dugbartey-Nudanu and her husband Duke Nudanu's Tropical Paradise in Berkeley. It was helpful to learn from Marco about his restaurant experiences and the support he receives from family, friends and community. I am especially grateful to Duke Nudanu (shown with me in the photo above; diners at Tropical Paradise are shown below) for taking time out to talk with me about insights gained in Berkeley over the past 23 months Tropical Paradise has been open. To subscribe to BETUMI podcasts, click on the itunes link at the top righthand side of the BETUMI home page, or subscribe from another podcast directory. To listen only to Mr. Nudanu's 22-minute interview, click here.

Near the end of our interview we revisit the need for an association for African food professionals. The plan is to get this organized in the next few months. Stay tuned.

African Restaurant Menus: In addition to an African cookbook collection, I have an extensive collection of African menus (collected by me, and now by family and friends on my behalf). A few recent menus, in addition to those from the restaurants above, include Mulugeta Abate's Pan Africa Market (panafricamarket.com) cafe in Seattle (I ate there and it had a nice blend of East and West African food), Yassa in Chicago (www.yassaafricanrestaurant.com), and Blue Nile in Harrisonburg, VA (BlueNileEC@gmail.com) (though this was an Ethiopian restaurant, thanks to a Togolese chef, they had a delicious groundnut/peanut stew on the menu). And my dear husband just returned from Cameroon/Cameroun with a menu from Restaurant Ristallo in Yaounde.

Who can describe funkasa?

I had a request today for information on what is described as a millet pancake, probably a Hausa food. I'm not familiar with it. Can anyone help?

Thanks.

"Kuli-kuli is calling me to come and buy"


Today while looking through Mother Africa's Table: A Collection of West African and African American Recipes and Cultural Traditions, compiled by Cassandra Hughes Webster for The National Council of Negro Women, Inc., in 1998 and thinking how many Ghanaian influcences found their way into that book, I came across a recipe for a version of kuli-kuli (fried peanut cakes).

I was instantly transported back to Bawku in northern Ghana, and remembered sitting in a courtyard one morning learning how to make the peanut-based snack food kuli-kuli as part of my quest to develop a recipe for yagi, or tankora, powder, the spicy dry rub for Ghanaian chichinga (kebabs).

According to Elizabeth Jackson, in her excellent 1999 cookbook, South of the Sahara: Traditional Cooking from the Lands of West Africa, yagi is a Hausa word for a mixture of spices dating back to a 14th century ruler in Kano nicknamed Yaji, "the hot-tempered one," and composed of up to seven dried, powdered spices (e.g., red pepper, ginger, salt). In Ghana it usually also includes groundnut powder and a fine cornmeal (Incidentally, I promise that when Barbara Baeta and I eventually get our regional Ghanaian cookbook out, a yagi recipe will be there, along with the tea bread and sugar bread recipes people keep asking about).

The other thing I remembered about kuli-kuli was that my host in Bawku, the gracious Dorcas Nimbo, kindly agreed to let me record her singing the popular children's song about it. To hear her, click here, or subscribe to the BETUMI podcasts (go to ITunes or another podcast directory to sign up).


I'm also grateful to Mohammed-Nadhir Ibn Muntaka for helping me refine the processing steps for kuli-kuli:
1. Making the groundnut paste, or peanut butter (called luquie in Hausa) by shelling, roasting and grinding the nuts.
2. Removing excess peanut oil by kneading the paste to make tunkusa.
3. Forming small balls and frying them again to remove more oil (though Mohammed said his mother boiled the balls for the same reason, and the oil rose to the top).
4. After deepfrying the balls, pounding them in a mortar with a pestle to make another paste, which is seasoned with salt and rolled into thinner-than-pencil ropes that are joined together to form irregular circles, and then deepfried again.
5. The final shapes are called kuli-kuli, though there are other versions, such as balls, also called by the name.

Kuli-kuli can be eaten plain as a snack, or broken and mixed into millet, or corn, or corn and millet porridges (kokoo). They are also crumbled and sprinkled onto other foods.

The couple of times I've tried making kuli-kuli, mine have disintegrated (the women in Ghana really know how to compress those balls), but I plan to keep working on perfecting the process. In the meantime, if you're lucky enough to get to Ghana or Nigeria, don't leave the kuli-kuli to the children!

Africa in Brasil (Brazil)


My husband is in Brasil/Brazil this October (2006). It turns out a number of people there never saw my pictures nor comments from my trip last year, so here they are in case you missed them, too. I still intend to pursue researching the Afro-Latin connections in Brazil and Latin America:

"I've just returned home (I wrote in 2005) from exploring Afro-Brazilian cuisine in Salvador (Bahia), Belo Horizonte and Ouro Preto (Minas Gerais), and Rio de Janeiro. The Portuguese and indigenous influences that worked their way back to Africa (such as corn and cassava and farofa-like gari) were fascinating, as were the influences going the other way (e.g., why dendê oil and coconut milk but not palm butter?). I sampled Cristina's tasty acarajé (a deep-fried cowpea paste fritter split open and filled with shrimp and a pepper sauce), reportedly "the best in Salvador," at Barraca de Cira, Praia de Itapoã. Acarajé is the descendant of West Africa's akla (a.k.a. akara, accara, kosai, koose, kose). We also had abará, a version steamed in banana leaves that has to be related to Ghana's tubaani or Nigeria's moyin-moyin or elele. I'm especially indebted to Brazilian colleagues: fellow IACP (International Association of Culinary Professionals) member Margarida Nogueira in Rio, Dr. Ericivaldo Veiga de Jesus, from the Catholic University of São Paulo, nutritionist Vera Fontes in Belo Horizonte, and Patricia Soutto Mayor Assumpçao of Buffet Célia Soutto Mayor. Plus special thank yous for their warm hospitality and acting as translators and guides go to Virginia and Renato Ciminelli and their family, Monica Christina Teixeira, and Claudia Lima. Several people have suggested pursuing further research into these cultural and agricultural connections via three-way collaboration among researchers in Brazil (and/or other Latin countries), Africa, and the U.S. Much attention appears already devoted to the influences from Africa to Brazil and the diaspora. I am especially interested in pursuing things from the other direction. For example, I wonder how related central Africa's batôn de manioc is to the processing of manioc by peoples in Amazonia, such as the Tupi-Guarani. Ditto for the fermenting of corn for Ghana's kenkey or banku. Also, I've never eaten cassava chips in Ghana, but they're a standard in Brazil. How do Brazil's roughly 1600 species of cassava (manioc) compare to West Africa's? Etc., etc., etc. Any ideas on how to pursue these interests? Get in touch."

Egusi soup and yam pottage, a conversation about Nigerian cuisine

We met in Wegmans, her grocery cart filled with collard greens, and I discovered that Mrs. R. A. (Auntie Bola) Sodeinde was in Pennsylvania for just one more day. She was busy cooking up some jollof rice and egusi stew for her son and his family before returning to Nigeria. When I learned of her television cooking show in Nigeria in the 1960s, and that she was in charge of providing food to students, faculty, and visiting dignitaries at the University of Lagos from 1962-1975, I knew I had to talk more with her. She graciously consented, and the interview is available as a podcast (To subscribe to earlier and future podcasts, go to itunes or a similar podcast directory, and search for BETUMI: the African Culinary Network). To listen to her interview only, click on the title above.

Coming soon to a store near you (or maybe already there!)

I was delighted to find our local Wegman's has begun carrying Julie and Albert Ndjee's West African salsa-like organic, preservative- and msg-free marinade/sauce "Neilly's Ultimate Seasonings" which bottles the flavors of the cuisine of Julie's homeland Cameroon. While my nephew from Ghana liked the pepperiness of the hot version (along, I'm sure with the onions and garlic) he found it "too tomato-y" and wanted more salt and less lemon, and, frankly, would have preferred the pounded dried shrimps and herrings of his familiar sheeto (or shito, shitor) from Ghana to its chicken-based flavors. Both the mild and the hot version had a pleasant complexity beyond the southern African "peri-peri" sauces I've had. Apparently there's also a vegetarian version that hasn't made it into our store yet. Ultimate Seasonings is working its way from the northeast westward in the U.S., and is available in a number of stores, ranging from Whole Foods Markets to Ukrop's and Kroger and ACME. For more information, click on the Ultimate Seasonings link on the right.

It's a fast, convenient, healthy way to get a taste of West Africa. Also, another sign that African cuisine is on the move into the mainstream consciousness.

"They Keep Their Fires Burning" Conversations on food, manners and hospitality in Africa"


Another good book to know about: Georgina Beier edited this contribution to Germany's Beyreuth African Studies series (#72), published in 2005 (www.breitinger.org). I had a little trouble running it down, but it's a fascinating record of growing up and society in largely rural or small town late 20th and early 21st century sub-Saharan Africa by 14 notable Africans, many artists or scholars (all but 2 of them men, and heavily weighted towards Nigeria) sharing stories and insights about their families, communities, and food. Contributors are from Nigeria (Chinua Achebe, Segun Olusola, whose essay gives the book its title, Rowland Abiodun, Bridget Robinson Kuba, Wole Ogundele, Umar Danfulani, Andrew Haruna), Burkina Faso (Karim Traore), Cameroon, (Godfrey B. Tangwa), Tanzania (Matthew Ole Suya Brown, a Masai), Sudan (Ibrahim El-Salahi), Uganda (Taban lo Liyong), and South Africa (Rebecca and Es'kia Mphahlele). It is a welcome addition to culinary writing on sub-Saharan Africa.

Africa's Culinary Star Rising

I just received my copy of Samuelsson's The Soul of a New Cuisine today, and I'm thrilled. He's definitely the poster child for the new wave of African Culinary consciousness. (By the way, there's a review of the book, with recipes, in September 2006's Oprah magazine.) I was nervous he wouldn't get it right, but he's done his homework, and his book feels genuine and fresh, if a bit glossy. It's a wonderful accomplishment, lavishly produced. It'll be a treat to work my way through it. I've dined in Marrakech and Cape Town as well as Accra and Jos, and am eager to try some of his recipes (though I'm pretty sure his injera recipe won't cut it for me. That soda water stuff doesn't give it the right texture).

He divided Central Africa up among North, West, and East Africa. I understand, and it's probably the most reasonable way to do it, but felt sorry anyhow. It startled me to hear that okra was originally from Ethiopia, because my research (e.g., The Cambridge World History of Food) indicated it most likely originated from tropical West Africa, which is what I've always thought. It looks like there may be some controversy there, but that's no biggie. I was happy he acknowledged Jessica Harris' legacy. Photographs are fabulous, the format of the book makes African food quite accessible to nonAfricans (they can identify with and not be threatened by him). He's very up front about his preferences, and as mine are towards Western Africa, I wished he'd placed more emphasis on that part of the region (more steamed recipes, like moimoi, or kenkey, and rubs like tankora, or yaggi, powder, and condiments like sheeto (shito, shitor), or gari. And when he said to substitute sweet potatoes if yams weren't available, that really hurt, as did his easy dismissal of palm oil (and so far I've seen nothing about palm butter). Still, as he realizes, there are many, many African cookbooks waiting to be written. If you ever stumble across this site, Marcus, thank you for what you're doing.

Sub-Saharan African Cuisine and Western Perceptions

I've just posted a pdf file of the slides from the powerpoint talk I gave in Boston over the summer at the Association for the Study of Food and Society (AFSF) and the Agriculture, Food, and Human Values Society (AFHVS) joint conference. Hope you find them helpful. I had to delete some of the graphics since I was worried about protecting photographers' rights. For a summary of the presentation see the posting on June 12. By the way, in case you don't recognize it, the picture to the left is the cover of Laurens van der Post's classic 1970 African Cooking, a volume in the Time-Life Foods of the World series.

Cool African Food T-shirts

I just discovered http://www.cafepress.com/buy/fufu/africa, a great site to order African food-related t-shirts. I ordered "got fufu?" and "I (heart for love) African Food." There're dozens of others, depending on your favorite: jollof rice, cassava leaf, palava sauce, acheke, potato greens, cous cous, plantains, moimoi, gari, torborgee (I know that's Liberian, and it includes palm oil, but could somebody help me out with the details?), fufu and soup, roasted meat, okra, pepper soup, check rice and gravy, yams, etc.

Also, there's a new website in the U.K. that says they'll eventually specialize in African foods:
The African There's not much there now besides music, but you might check them out later.

Fran's summer reading list: African food culture

The kitchen's hot, why not get out and savor some summer reading on African food and culture? Try anthropologist Karen Flynn's sobering Food, Culture and Survival in an African City (Palgrave Macmillan, 2005) about life on the streets of Mwanza, Tanzania (you can see my review in Food, Culture and Society). Another gem I'm reading now is Boston University historian James McCann's fascinating Maize and Grace: Africa's Encounter with a New World Crop 1500-2000 (Harvard University Press, 2005). A more general book is Betty Fussell's classic, fun The Story of Corn: The Myths and History, the Culture and Agriculture, the Art and Science of America's Quintessential Crop (Knopf, 1992). Next on my to-read list is Edmund Abaka's Kola is God's Gift: Agricultural Production, Export Initiatives & the Kola Indusstry of Asante & the Gold Coast c1820-1950 (Ohio Univ. Press, James Currey, and Woeli Publishing Services, 2005). What are you reading?

Sub-Saharan African Cuisine in the media and the mind

How do people in the U.S. and Canada view sub-Saharan African cuisine? Do they even know it exists? I'm just back from Boston, MA and the annual conference of the ASFA/AFHVS (Assoc. for the Study of Food and Agriculture/Agriculture, Food, and Human Values Society) with my contribution towards answering that question. I shared results from my analysis of several recent years of the programs of 3 conferences I attend (in addition to ASFA/AFHVS conference, IACP conferences (Intl. Assoc. of Culinary Professionals), and an ASA, or African Studies Association conference). Also, a survey of dozens of issues of two popular culinary magazines, Gourmet and Saveur, shed further light on the subject of "western perceptions of sub-Saharan African cuisine."

I'll soon post my rough Powerpoint presentation at betumi.com for any who are curious for details and charts. However, to summarize:

* in 8 years of IACP meetings between 1997 and 2006, less than 1% (0.7%) were devoted wholly to Africa or an African country (only Jessica Harris and Fran Ossseo-Asare giving invited presentations),
* in 6 years of ASFA/AFHVS meetings between 2000 and 2006, only 4 papers of over 847 papers/posters. or less than 0.4%,were on African cuisine (2 of them given by Fran Osseo-Asare and the other 2 related to students discovering Somali and Ethiopian cuisine in the U.S., respectively). Overall, 1.8% of the papers were on food/Africa related topics (food insecurity, nutrition, development, imperialism, education, politics, etc.), but more on African food as problem that as cuisine.
* While searching through well over 100 pages of a pdf file of the 2004 program of the ASA I was unable to identify any papers about African cuisine where food was considered in its culinary sense (though one paper dealt with the novel Nervous Conditions, most likely with the issue of eating disorders).
* In 11 random issues of Gourmet between Feb. 2004 and Dec. 2005 there was one article on West African restaurants in the U.S., one brief travel article by Alexander McCall Smith on his trip to Botswana (not about the food), and a recommendation of a South African restaurant in Cape Town as one of the world's best.
* In 13 random issues of Saveur: Savor a world of authentic cuisine, between Dec. 2003 and May 2006, there were 2 articles devoted to African cuisine (1 article on coffee in Coche, Ethiopia (~3% of that month's issue), and 1 on Durban South Africa's ethnic Indian population (~2% of that month's issue), and 1 page of a 10-page article on peanuts considered Africa's contributions. There were a few other mentions of Africa, but of 1372 pages, but that was only about 6 pages, or ~0.4% of the total.


Clearly, there's a huge challenge for those of us who want to share the delights of African cuisine with a wider audience, and to get it taken as seriously as other world cuisines. We need to write books and articles, give cooking demonstrations, request more African foods in our grocery stores, champion changes in culinary curricula and restaurant offerings. Also, we need to form an alliance of all the actors involved with African food as culinary professionals outside of Africa: caterers, farmers, food processors, chefs and restaurant owners, food writers, culinary professionals of all types. BETUMI: The African Culinary Network is in the process of organizing such a professional association for African Culinary Professionals (maybe African Culinary Professionals in the Americas, or ACPA (except that there are also ACP folks in the U.K. who would like to join, so maybe it could stand for African Culinary Professionals Abroad).

I was happy to notice a recent post about Ghanaian cooking on the World On a Plate blog. I also heard Anthony Bourdain's May interview on NPR (RE his latest book Nasty Bits), and cheered when I heard him say how terrific Ghana's food is. And I'm anxiously awaiting chef Samuelsson's book (The Soul of a New Cuisine: A Discovery of the Foods and Flavors of Africa), too. Africa's culinary time is here!

I recently had an e-mail from a woman asking WHERE in the U.S. she could take a Ghanaian pastry course. She has taken courses in pastry-making at the ICE (Institute for Culinary Education) in NYC, as well as Latin pastry-making classes, but was looking for anywhere or anyone in the U.S., public or private, teaching Ghanaian-style sweet and savory pastries (breads, coconut and other cakes, meat pies, chips, etc.). The time to introduce sub-Saharan African cuisine into contemporary culinary curricula is now: let's learn about fufu and palmnut soup, palaver sauce, plantain pancakes, injera and wats and alechas, new teas, new ways to serve coffee, peri peri shrimp, suya, palm butter, cassava and corn dishes steamed in leaves, meat and fish grilled with chilis, etc., etc., etc.

Nkwan Pa! ("Good Soup". . . Bon Appetit!): I recently became aware of another self-published Ghanaian cookbook that deserves wider exposure. It's called Ghanaian Cooking with a Twist, by Asantewaa Tweedie, an Ashanti and a nurse, currently based in Maryland, USA. In her own words, the book "celebrates the delicious foods from many of the ethnic groups in Ghana, and beyond." Her book "has been structured to reflect the Ghanaian sensibility for food and allow the user to more fully understand and appreciate the true spectrum and essence of African cuisine. It does not simply put the "round pegs" of Ghanaian food into the "square holes" of Western concepts of cuisine. It celebrates Ghanaian foods on African terms. . . Ghanaian Cooking with a Twist describes common sense techniques to cook African dishes in more healthy ways for the needs of today's health-conscious consumer."

Several things attracted me to the book: It is a good resource for both novice and experienced cooks, with cultural information as well as practical guidelines for preparing and presenting the dishes; features color and black and white illustrations by Kwamena Essilfie-Essel; includes a number of dishes from the northern regions, which tend to be under-represented in Ghanaian cookbooks; and has a handy "meal selection matrix," that clearly explains what soups, stews, and sauces "go with" what kinds of "foundations" (starches/carbohydrates). She's also considered her African readers, and has included a section on "Obroni Aduane (White Man's Food)" with recipes for pizza, garlic bread, scones, hamburgers, meatballs, etc. "Obroni" actually refers to a "white person," male or female. At $10 a copy, the 86-page book is definitely an incredible bargain. Since 2002 it has only been available via word of mouth. BETUMI has agreed to become the U.S. distributor, so if you'd like a copy, simply mail a check for $10 (ten U.S. dollars) plus $3.50 shipping and handling, (that's $13.50 U.S. dollars total) made out to BETUMI, to BETUMI, P.O. Box 222/State College, PA 16804 U.S.A. and we'll rush a copy to you.

Podcast News: Fran on Eat Feed Podcast and Hosting African Culinary Podcasts

BETUMI: The African Culinary Network has begun airing podcasts, beginning with the 2 mentioned in previous blogs (with Barbara Baeta and Dr. Yaw Adusei). To hear these and subscribe to free future podcasts, click on the itunes link on the betumi.com homepage, or go to a podcast directory like podcast alley and search for BETUMI: The African Culinary Network. Podcasts can be heard on computers or ipods. If you have an idea for a future podcast, please share that information as well (fran@betumi.com).

In addition, Anne Bramley interviewed Fran Osseo-Asare in April 2006 for an Eat Feed podcast on kitchens, in which she talks about Ghanaian kitchens in the last quarter of the 20th century

Chemical engineer Dr. Yaw Adusei, talks about fufu and fufu flour

Dr. Yaw Adusei, an Ashanti, a chemical engineer trained in Ghana, Holland, Israel, and the United States, and the founder of Mama's Choice Fufu Flour, talks about his background, fufu, and the Ghana-style fufu flour produced by his New Jersey, USA-based company Adusei Corporation. He discusses issues of quality, nutritional analysis, consumer preference, and convenience.

Interview with leading West African culinary professional Barbara Baeta, in which she discusses various forms of cassava dishes, including gari and akple

Listen to an interview with legendary Barbara Baeta of Ghana, whose Flair Catering company has cooked for every head of state since Ghana's independence from England in 1957, beginning with Ghana's first Prime Minister Kwame Nkrumah through J. J. Rawlings who left office in 2000. In this brief interview, she discusses various forms of cassava (manioc) dishes, including gari, the "couscous of West Africa," and, akple, a cooked cassava dough.

Microwave Fufu Recipe

Just before I left for Seattle at the end of March to attend the International Association of Culinary Professionals' annual meeting, a visitor from Australia, Jonas Addai-Mensah, kindly agreed to come to my kitchen and help me perfect my microwave fufu-making technique. We used Mama's Choice Plantain Fufu Powder, and it actually made about a third more fufu than the identical amount of the same brand of flour used on the stove top. I'll include some photos as soon as I get them back (my digital camera just broke).

I haven't had time to fine-tune the recipe, but I shadowed him, and copied down his every step. I'll try it out tonight with some groundnut soup.

1. In a large nonmetal bowl, mix 1 cup fufu flour with 2 cups water, stirring with your hand or a spoon to dissolve all the lumps.
2. Cover the bowl with a plate and microwave on high for 3 minutes.
3. Remove the bowl using potholders. Use a potholder to lift the cover away from your face and stir the fufu vigorously with a strong wooden spoon for about 2 minutes, gradually turning the bowl and mixing the fufu on the outside towards the center. Sprinkle 1/3 cup of the reserved water over it as you stir.
4. Recover the fufu and return it to the microwave oven for 3 minutes
5. Remove the bowl and repeat step 3 (stirring and sprinkling).
6. Recover the fufu and return to the microwave oven for another 3 minutes.
7. Remove the bowl of fufu, sprinkle only half the 1/3 cup of water remaining, and sir once again.
8. Recover and return the bowl, but only microwave it for 1 minute.
9. Allow the fufu to sit briefly, then use the remaining water to wet a bowl, spoon, or your hands, and form fufu balls the desired size onto a dampened plate or platter. Enjoy with your favorite soup or stew!


I'd love to hear what your favorite fufu powder is, and whether you prefer making it on the stovetop or microwave, and prefer adding water first and then cooking it or boiling water first and then stirring in the flour. We also did a taste test on a couple of different kinds of plantain fufu powders. I'm partial to plantain over cocoyam. What do you like?